


Reach for the Stars

by insaneshadowfangirl



Series: Defying Gravity [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Baby Blasters, Attempted Murder, Baby Bro Papyrus, Bad Puns, Battle, Big Brother Sans, Brother-Sister Relationships, Butterfly Effect, Chara Being An Asshole, Chara Is Less Murderous Than Usual, Chara Swearing, Chara and Frisk Share a Body, Child Abuse, Child Undyne, Dadby, Depression, Evil W. D. Gaster, Female Frisk, Flowey Is A Dick, Flowey Redemption, Flowey Remembers Resets, Frisk Needs A Hug, Frisk Resets, Frisk Swearing, Frisk has an actual older brother, Gaster Blaster Papyrus, Gaster Blaster Sans, Gen, Goat Mom Is Best Mom, Goat Mom is Angry, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Magic, Medical Experimentation, Medical Torture, Mental Link, Middle Sister Frisk, Mom Toriel, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Flowey, Papyrus Remembers Resets, Past Child Abuse, Psychological Torture, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Remembers Resets, Sans Swearing, Sans and Frisk have no people skills, Soul Bond, Soul Trauma, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, Timeline Shenanigans, Toriel Gives Hugs, Toriel is a BAMF, Torture, Undyne Manhandles People, Unethical Experimentation, W. D. Gaster Being An Asshole, Whoo we're jumping right in with Gaster being an Asster, Winged Frisk, but only if buttercuos count as a drug, fight, magic frisk, or at least we will in chapter 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-21 21:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8260483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insaneshadowfangirl/pseuds/insaneshadowfangirl
Summary: One human, a tiny little thing. Weak. Insignificant. A soul as red as blood. Stolen by by the Man who Speaks in Hands.Two monsters, young and fragile. Damaged. Defective. Souls as white as snow.He held them, he hurt them.They fled.And then his plans came crashing down.Secrets have come out, and there is nowhere to hide.But perhaps... He doesn't need to.A single human soul is much stronger than all of the monsters in the Underground combined.





	1. You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

> Here we gooooooo agaaaaaain

Toriel saw Nikita out of the Ruins, apologizing for her visit being unpleasant and dredging up bad memories.

 

“It's fine, Your Highness.” The bird woman said softly, staring unseeing at the door. Her green eyes were unfocused, her feathers drooping. “I mean, it hurts to know what Roslyn did, what she was capable of... But I think it's better that I do, in the end.” She shook her head. “I really just need some time to think.”

 

“Of course. Have... Have a good day.”

 

“Thank you.” She muttered, exiting the ruins.

 

Toriel shut the door with a sigh. Not for the first time did she wish that she could just offer hugs and pie and jokes and make everything better for all of the Underground.

 

But it was not to be. Puns and cuddles were nice, but they were hardly cure-alls.

 

“Papyrus, please!” Scylla's panicked voice came from upstairs, and Toriel felt her soul go cold in fear.

 

She belted down the hall and up the stairs, her robes fluttering behind her.

 

The tiny blaster form of Papyrus was standing in the hall, facing the door. He was tense, coiled up and ready to pounce, claws digging into the carpet. He was growling at the tall blue fish woman blocking his exit.

 

Deputy Scylla, second in command of the Royal Guard, looked worriedly at the goat monster. “Queen Toriel, he was just sitting on the floor playing with blocks one second, then BAM! He was shifted and running for the door at top speed. I barely managed to beat him!”

 

Toriel frowned. She knew one thing that could have the toddler so distressed, and it was nothing good. After all, Papyrus and his two elder siblings --his brother, Sans, and his sister, Frisk-- were connected via a soul bond that had been forced on them by Papyrus's creator, Dr. Wingdings Gaster. While Toriel, Nikita, Scylla, and the Captain of the Guard, Gerson, had been going through Dr. Gaster's assistant's journals, Frisk had gone hunting for Sans with the children's friends, Alphys and Undyne. Sans had fled at the first sight of Nikita, the lab assistant's younger sister, due to her strong resemblance to the other.

 

If, stars forbid, something had happened to one of her other darling adopted children, Papyrus would almost certainly know.

 

“Papyrus?” She asked gently, kneeling beside the tiny, kitten-sized monster. “My child? What is wrong?”

 

The skeletal dog-creature simply growled at her, tail lashing.

 

“Is it Sans? Frisk? Is one of them hurt?”

 

A frantic nod was her response, and Toriel felt as though she'd had a bucket of ice water dumped over her head.

 

“Will you lead me to them, my child?”

 

Papyrus gave a nod, and let out a strange combination of a bark and a chirp.

 

“Deputy, please stand aside. You may also wish to get Gerson...”

 

The blue-skinned fish lady saluted and bolted down the hall. Once she was out of the way, Papyrus wasted no time in legging it out the door and down the halls of the Ruins.

 

1234567890

 

“Stay away from me!” Frisk shouted at Undyne, backing against the wall of the room they were in. She knew it wasn't safe for her friends to be anywhere near her at the moment-- She had _killed_ one of them, after all.

 

Francine Thana Seraphee was a very unique little girl. After being held captive by Dr. Gaster and having her damaged soul replced with half of a soul belonging to a monster, she had gained some very special abilities, including the power to turn back time if and when she died. She'd udes this power only twice, once after a botched battle with the King of the monsters, and once just a few minutes beforehand. Her elder brother in all but genetics had been recaptured by the Doctor, and Frisk had lost control of her emotions, raging and murdering everything that so much as crossed her path. She'd been out of control and desperate to hunt down her brother, her high Level of Violence driving her to the brink of actual genocide. Thankfully, she'd been snapped out of it by a friend, and had promptly killed herself so as to bring everything back to the way it had been at her last save point (unfortunately after Sans had been kidnapped).

 

But she still remembered doing it, and that was what had led to her current predicament, cowering against the wall, hands shaking, and trying to convince Undyne to _stay away from her_.

 

It wasn't going too well, honestly.

 

“Please, Frisk--”

 

“ _No!_ It's not safe-- Without Sans, _I'm not safe to be around_!”

 

She could practically see the gears turning in Undyne's head. “You... You have a high LV, don't you? And you use Sans to keep it stable.” Frisk didn't have time to confirm or deny the completely true statement before she felt the fish girl check her stats.

 

“Francine 'Frisk' Seraphee,” She read aloud. “LOVE 7, HP 32/36. *Feels Guilty. Wants her brothers.”

 

Frisk flinched. That... Her LV had been _four_ , not seven! Had.. Had the LOVE she'd gained before the reset carried over? Chara hadn't mentioned that. And it wasn't like she could just ask him. She had yet to hear from the other person living inside of her mind despite reloading, so she could only assume he was MIA for the moment.

 

“Oh, F-Frisk...” Alphys said softly. To the girl's surprise, the yellow dinosaur monster walked right up to her and wrapped her into a hug. “D-don't worry... W-we'll tell Queen Toriel and C-Captain G-Gerson and they'll find h-him. You w-won't even have time to m-miss him.”

 

This was too much for the traumatized little human-monster hybrid, and a pair of large wings unfolded from her back, sliding through slits in her tee-shirt. She squirmed away from Alphys and sank to the floor, curling into herself and wrapping her red and gold feathered appendages around her, allowing them to muffle her soft sobs. She just wanted to hold Papyrus and Sans and not have to worry anymore.

 

The other two children sat on either side of her, leaning into her sides.

 

They stayed like that until Papyrus and Toriel found them an hour later.

 


	2. That's what I'm Counting On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After two weeks with no progress in finding Sans, Frisk makes a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triple updating today! If you're also reading Stand By You and DayBreak, don't forget to check out the new chapters!

Frisk paced. One, two, three, four, turn and do it again. Papyrus’s head bobbed back and forth as she walked, watching her from their bed. It was nearly midnight, but she couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t slept in days.

 

They’d forbidden her from looking for Sans. Undyne’s aunt, the turtle man, and Mama Tori. They’d told her she was too young. They’d told her it was too dangerous. They’d told her to leave it to the Royal Guard, that they’d have her big brother back at her side 

 

They’d treated her like the child she admittedly was. They were complete and utter  _ imbeciles _ .

 

Mama Tori was keeping a close eye on her. Making sure she couldn’t slip out unseen.

 

It had been almost two weeks. Two long weeks where the minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly.

 

Frisk was going to lose it again. 

 

“SISTER?” Her baby brother asked, his tone worried. Her head snapped over to him, but she did not falter.

 

One, two, three, four. Turn and do it again. Four paces. As much as she was able to get in their old cell without ramming into a wall. 

 

“Yes, dear?” She asked slowly. She wasn’t angry, not at the toddler. He was her sunshine down here, the light that was currently keeping her sane.

 

“SISTER NEED TO SITS. CALM. QUIET TIME.” The smaller child scolded, crossing his skeletal arms and glaring reproachfully at her. It was amazing how much of a mother hen the youngest of them could be. “GET STRESS, NOT HELPING BROTHER.”

 

… And he had a point, toddler or not. Stressing out over Sans wasn’t going to help him, and being clearly agitated about not being able to search for her brother was only going to keep Mama Tori on high alert. Still, it didn’t make her feel any better.

 

With a sigh, she plopped onto the bed beside the smaller monster, staring at the wall. Her wings twitched beneath her shirt, reminding her that she hadn’t gone flying in  _ weeks _ . The muscles were going to atrophy at this rate.

 

“Heh. The Doc would  _ hate _ that. His little weapon, reduced to a lazy little lapdog.” The hybrid scoffed, shucking off her striped top so she could spread her wings without interference.

 

“SISTER SING? MAYBE FEEL BETTER.”

 

Frisk glanced over at Papyrus, whose eyelights sparkled with innocence. She wasn't buying it, not for a second. “It would make  _ you _ feel better, wouldn’t it?”

 

He nodded, reluctantly. Frisk chuckled and rolled her eyes good naturedly. When they were in the lab, she’d often sang for her brothers. The soul transplant that Doctor had put her through had changed a lot of things about her body. Including her voice, which had pissed her off to no end. Though she hadn’t been able to remember her original voice, she’d known something was  _ off _ from the very first words she’d spoken to the Doctor. And she hadn’t liked it. Still, the boys had enjoyed her singing, and it was only during singing that she actually enjoyed listening to herself.

 

“You know you only have to ask, baby bro.” She hummed absently. “Any requests?”

 

He shook his head. “SING WHAT FEEL.”

 

Sing what she was feeling. She sighed. Some of the songs she’d sung to her siblings had been cobbled together from her damaged (at the time) memories, some had been remembered in full, some had been made up in her free time, often to take her mind off the pain she was in, but most of them had been come up with on the spot, based on whatever she was feeling. And she found it easier to hash out what she was  _ actually  _ feeling when she sang about it...

 

Usually sadness or fear.

 

But once in awhile….

 

She found herself angry. And she was very angry at the moment. Angry with herself, with the well-meaning adults, with the Doctor--

 

It was all the Doctor’s fault. The doctor, and the lab, and, and-- 

 

She grit her teeth, took a breath, and began to sing.

 

“ _ Trapped beneath the ground… Locked away where we won’t be found... _

 

_ No one knows we’re here… But the day draws near. _ ”

 

Her fists clutched at the blanket beneath her. Her soul hummed with magic. The dimly-lit bedroom was slowly bathed in soft red light as her eyes began to glow. 

 

“ _ I will leave this place _

_ Ending all the fears I’ve faced _ .” 

Papyrus inched closer to her. In the red light pouring off of her feathers and eyes, Frisk thought the bedroom looked a lot like the lab.

 

“ _ We went free, yet he _

_ Came to recapture me _ .”

 

He caught Sans, but she was no fool. The Doctor came after them both, and probably Papyrus. He would be back, but only after getting complete control of Sans. They  _ had  _ to strike first, didn’t those stupid adults understand?

“ _ But we won’t forgive the pain _

_ or forget his years _

_ full of blood and tears _ .”

 

Didn’t they get it? If they let Frisk look, she’d be able to find him with their bond! She had a much higher likelihood to find him than they ever did. But no, the adults  _ knew best _ . 

 

Stars, she  _ hated  _ that phrase. All the experiments, the pain and suffering they went through… He’d justified it with that simple phrase.  _ I know best _ .  _ You know nothing _ .

 

She shot to her feet, shaking her hair out of her eyes. The shelves rattled ominously as the air was charged with magic. Frisk was so  _ angry _ , she hadn’t  _ ever _ felt rage like this. 

 

“ _ There were no more shocks and burns! _

 

_ No more tests, no more ‘lessons’ learned! _

 

_ Here, I draw the line-- _

 

_ Etched in blood of mine! _ ”

 

1234567890

 

Papyrus watched his big sister sing, worrying. Frisk’s eyes and feathers were all glowing red, something he hadn’t seen them do before. He’s seen the blues and the purple and the yellow, but not red. Never red. 

 

And he didn’t like the feelings he was getting over their bond. He’d always known that Frisk had a mean streak… He’d seen the venomous glares she’d shoot at the Doctor when his back was turned. And while she had tried to teach him about forgiveness and second chances, there was always an edge to her voice when she spoke. Always the undertone of bitterness. 

 

Always the message that “Anyone can be a good person if they try-- But if they won’t try then don’t give them a second chance to stab you in the back.” 

 

And… Well, his big sister wasn’t really a  _ good  _ person. She was a nice person, and she tried to be a kind person.... But the Doctor had taught her cruelty. And Papyrus didn’t think that either Sans or Frisk noticed it, but sometimes… Sometimes during the tests, during the battle simulations he was too little to take part in… Sometimes, they looked  _ happy _ . They laughed and bantered and  _ reveled _ in the carnage they wrought. 

 

It scared him sometimes, how Sans and Frisk could enjoy causing pain. He was frightened, just a little, by the occasional crazed light in Frisk’s eyes and the unstable smile she wore sometimes, when the LOVE got to be too much for her small body to hold and she lashed out at the target-- Whether that target was living or dead, it was always obliterated. Sans was the same way.

 

And yet, they never seemed to notice.

 

Still, Papyrus knew they would never,  _ ever _ hurt him. He was frightened that they may hurt others, but he had no reason to be frightened for his own safety. His siblings would do anything to protect him.

 

He wiped at his eye sockets. He hadn’t even realized he’d begun to cry, and it would only upset his sister if she saw him. 

 

Frisk’s pretty voice echoed off the walls, and Papyrus saw her eyes harden, her face set. It looked like she’d come to a decision. Determination shone in her eyes.

 

“ _ So much fear and pain all around… _

_ What I’d give up for him to be found… _

_ I would roll the dice… Offer _

_ Any sacrifice! _ ”

 

She grabbed Alphys’s pink backpack off the hook on the wall and stomped over to the dresser, beginning to pick out clothing and fold it at the bottom of the bag. A few shirts for her (Including one that she slid on) and a few of Sans’s, a couple of onesies for him… Were they leaving?

 

“ _ And I won’t wait one  _

_ More day with these empty fears… _

_ And blood and tears! _ ”

 

She snatched a couple of the smaller toys and plushies and added them to the bag, then a folded blanket over the top of that. Alphys’s bag was pretty full at that point, and she set it down beside the bed.

 

“ _ So Papy _ …” She lifted him onto her hip and planted a kiss atop his skull. “ _ No more crying. Only chaos-- No relying on someone to save us! _ ”

 

She lifted him onto her shoulders and grabbed a second bag, this one an over-the-shoulder one, and tossed it over by the other one. “ _ If they only knew just what we’ve been through… What’s the good of my broken soul If it can’t lift us from this hole…? _ ”

 

Papyrus closed his eye sockets, shifting forms so he could lay more comfortably on her shoulders. If they were leaving… that was fine. Because he’d have his big sister. And she’d take care of him.

 

“ _ Be my hands forever stained with  _

_ A thousand smears… _

_ Of blood and tears. _ ” She finished softly, reaching up as she did to pet him. He chirped contentedly.

 

“We’re going, Papyrus. She can’t keep us here… I don’t want to leave, but… We’ve already left Sans alone for far too long.”

 

He nodded. Frisk only seemed to harden at his confirmation.

 

“Come on. Let’s go.”

 

‘WHAT IF FLUFFY THERE?’ He worried over their bond. 

 

Frisk let out a little scoff. “If  _ Miss Toriel _ is waiting on us trying to sneak out, I’m afraid we’ll have to sorely disappoint her. I don’t intend to get caught. And if we do…” There was a familiar glint in her eyes. “I’m  _ filled _ with determination. Now come on, we’ve got a kitchen to raid.”

 

He nodded again, nuzzling her cheek. ‘LOVE.’

 

“Love you too, Paps.” The hybrid muttered grimly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lyrics in this chapter were slightly tweaked from Random Encounters' new FNAF Sister Location Musical, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B21L6kVZtuw


	3. The house was awake with shadows and monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mother finds her children gone, a brother goes looking for his sister, and a father continues to be a dick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Red: what... what is this? an UPDATE? whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat....?
> 
> In my defense, I've been very busy--
> 
> Red: not too busy to write torture porn and regular porn with lucy.
> 
> There's ALWAYS time for porn, Sans.

Jamie Seraphee stared at the television, eyes vacant and glassy. His mind was awhirl with all the dozens of things that could go wrong over the next few hours, all the things that could stop he and Bianca from taking their planned trip up the mountain. She could have to go to weekend detention or fall down the stairs when she was leaving her apartment or, or--

 

His cell phone rang. He snatched it up, fumbling and nearly dropping the dammed thing in his haste to answer it.

 

“Bia?” He asked nervously over the receiver. The caller id had said it was her, but it could be a robber or her father or--

 

“ _Calm down, Jamie. It’s me. I’m waiting outside._ ” Bianca drawled into the phone.

 

Jamie let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Okay. Okay. Everything was fine. He _really_ needed to calm down. It was just a mountain. They were just going to climb the mountain where his baby sister had disappeared. The mountain that urban legend proclaimed nobody who went to it alone ever returned.

 

But it was okay. He _would_ find Frisk. He _had to_.

 

As he stood and grabbed his backpack and the small kitten plushie from the seat on the couch beside where he’d been sitting, he caught a glimpse of _something_ out of the corner of his eye. He whirled around, only to see the shadow man with the empty eyes and gaping smile vanish into nothing before he could get a good look.

 

Damn thing. No matter how much he told himself it wasn’t real, no matter how much he tried to force himself to believe that it was just his mind playing tricks on him and trying to scare him with images from his nightmares in reality… He couldn’t shake the feeling that the melting shadow man was following him. That he was being watched by this… this thing.

  


Shaking his head, Jamie hurried from the room and then the house, resolving to put it out of his mind. Bianca’s tiny purple smart car sat idling on the curb, his girlfriend seated in the driver’s side, leaning out the window.

 

“You alright, Jamie? You’re shaking… And kinda pale.”

 

“Didn’t get much sleep.” He answered casually, sliding into the shotgun seat and dropping his bag between his legs.

 

“Oh, are you sure you want to do this today, then? I’d be happy to wait--”

 

“No. Absolutely not. We’ve been waiting long enough.” He cut her off, voice firm. Odds were high that his baby sis had died long ago from exposure alone, if whatever supposedly lived on the mountain hadn’t gotten her first. He had to go _now_. His girlfriend nodded, putting the car in gear and pulling away from the house.

 

Next stop, Mt. Ebott.

 

1234567890

 

Toriel knocked on the children's door. “Frisk? Papyrus?” She called. “Breakfast is ready, my children!”

 

After a long moment of silence, she frowned. “Children? I am coming in!”

 

The bedroom door creaked as she slid it open, casting light on an empty room. The bed hadn't been slept in-- the blankets were slightly scrunched as though they'd been sat upon, and the top one was missing completely. The dresser drawers were hanging open, missing over half of the clothing that Toriel had lovingly picked out and packed inside. The backpack that had belonged to Alphys, and the messenger bag that she had found for Frisk were missing from their hooks.

 

Horror and guilt shot through the former Queen like a lance as she took in the signs.

 

Her children had fled in the night.

 

How? How had they managed it? She had been watching, she’d had spells set up to let her know if the children left their room… She'd been staying awake most of the night to keep an ear out… And yet, there hadn’t been a peep. The spell didn’t go off, the door hadn’t creaked, there had been absolutely no sign of their departure.

 

But it was unmistakable.

 

Toriel cast her mind back to the strange lack of food in the house that she had noticed this morning. Nonperishables she’d been sure she had were no longer in the cabinet, bottles of fruit juice and water vanished from the refrigerator. She’d put it down at the time to Frisk and her brother idly snacking, and the stress of worrying about Sans making her forgetful. She should’ve known better!

 

The caretaker of the Ruins burst out of the children’s room rushing down the hall. She had to find her phone, had to call for help. She couldn’t live with herself if Frisk and Papyrus were recaptured alongside Sans.

 

She had to round up the troops.

 

1234567890

 

Sans’s eye sockets cracked open and he whined in pain. It was an animalistic sound, fitting as he was currently in his blaster form. The shock collar offered no sympathy, however, and beeped insistently. A wordless threat of what would happen if he didn’t get up and do as he was told.

 

“Surely you can handle such a simple task, S-1?” The hated voice of the Doctor drawled from a few feet away. Sans reluctantly forced himself onto four trembling legs, eyeing the target with one glowing blue socket.

 

He  _could_ do it. But he  _really_ didn’t want to. He didn’t want to cooperate. He didn’t want to provide Gaster with what he wanted. Why should he…

 

Why should he aid this man after all the pain and suffering he’d been put through?

 

/That’s the spirit, kid./ Chara’s voice said softly in the back of his mind. Neither of them had any real idea of how Chara had ended up in Sans’s mind rather than Frisk’s. Chara had mentioned something or other about a mental ‘portal’, which he had theorized was the Mindscape’s manifestation of their link, but it was one hundred percent a guess. /Don't give that bastard the satisfaction of your acceptance. He's wrong./

 

‘ _even so…’_

 

/Just… focus on doing the bare minimum.  You’re good at that. Meanwhile I’ll figure out a way out of here../

 

‘ _i feel so loved.’_

 

/You should./

 

Sans opened his maw and fired a small beam of magic along the hard-packed blue soil that made up the floor of this lab. There’s no way this was what the Doctor _wants_ , Sans knew. He moved the beam in a straight line, leaving a scorch mark all the way to the wall, slightly up it, and directly at the damned thing.

 

Gaster made a noise of irritation, but Sans didn’t care. He was stalling. Somebody… Frisk…. Miss Toriel… _Somebody_  had to find him.

 

He tried not to think about the reset that had happened. He ignored Chara’s warnings that Frisk wasn’t in her right mind. He focused on distracting the Doctor while Chara tried to come upo with a plan or _somebody, anybody_ came to find him.


	4. Won't you please come get your baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk starts hunting down her brother and the doctor, and Jamie and Bianca continue their hunt for Frisk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, years ago, when I watched Annie for the first time (I loved it, still do), I didn't really pay attention to 'Maybe'. It was overshadowed by 'Tomorrow' and 'It's a Hard Knock Life'. But when you really listen to it, Maybe is probably the most emotional song in the whole damn play/movie. So I dedicate this chapter to Annie and its overlooked gem. Especially one particular line. :)

It had taken ten tries. Ten times, Frisk had snuck out of their bedroom. Nine times, Toriel had caught them. Nine times, Frisk had to kill herself. 

 

The first few times it had been whatever alarm ward Toriel had set up. Frisk figured out how to disable it on the third go around, but was caught raiding the fridge twice after. The fifth time she’d simply been careless and tripped, and the sixth was Papyrus barking at the exact wrong moment. The seventh attempt they had made it to the door only to trip a second ward, and it took another two tries to disable it. 

 

Thankfully, once outside, Frisk had felt enough Determination to save. 

 

Snowdin Forest was cold, but she barely felt the nippy air. She had a coat now, with slits cut into the back for her wings. Papy was cuddled into her hood, calmer than Frisk thought he’d be. Then again, she knew he trusted her implicitly.  He believed she would find Sans and beat the Doctor and everything would go back to sunshine and rainbows. 

 

Frisk carefully shielded her burning doubt from the bond. No need to let Paps know how afraid she was. 

 

Very.

 

The Doctor terrified her. 

 

With Snowdin in sight, Frisk spread her wings and bounded through the snow, grabbing her own soul in gravity magic and flinging it upwards. 

 

_ Beat, beat, beat _ .

 

Her wings cut through the icy air as she flew above the little town, Papyrus digging his claws in her back. 

 

1234567890

 

Bianca and Jamie sat down on a rock. They had been wandering the mountainside for hours after sneaking past the ridiculously inattentive guards set to ensure nobody did exactly what they were doing, and now the sun was high in the sky. A check of Jamie’s watch had revealed it was past noon, so the duo had elected to take a short break for lunch.

 

Bianca lifted her notebook and began scribbling in it, chewing on her tongue.

 

“Whatcha writing?” Jamie asked. He had set down his sandwich and was now staring at her. 

 

The teenager adjusted her purple headband, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. “I’m trying to sketch out the path we’ve taken.” She lifted the notebook to show Jamie the topographical map of the mountain that she’d pasted onto the page.

 

“Okay… So why do you look so worried.”

 

Bianca let out a nervous little chuckle. “Well, um… You see…”

 

“Bia?”

 

“The paths we’ve taken… Theydon’tmatchanythingonthemapandIhavenocluewhereweare?”

 

Jamie baulked. “Please say that a little slower, sweetheart.”

 

“We’re  _ lost _ , Jamie!”

 

Jamie facepalmed. “I was afraid that was what you’d said.” 

 

“Ehheh.” Bianca gave him a sheepish smile, blushing slightly. “Maybe you should’ve taken the map? I might’ve gotten confused…”

 

“Well, it’s too late to worry about it now. Let’s finish up here, and then… I guess we’ll just pick a direction and then keep going. We’re bound to find  _ something _ , and we packed provisions for a week.” 

 

Bianca nodded, glad Jamie had had the foresight to pack so well. Of course, they’d be missed at school (and with Jamie’s folks) if they were gone more than a day or so, bt it was too late to worry about that. “You’re probably gonna get chewed out by Beatrice and Caleb.” She grinned weakly at him. “Worrying them like this after Frisk…”

 

“Yeah…” But they both knew it would be worth the risk if they could only find answers. 

 

“Hey Bianca?”

 

She looked back up at him from the notebook. “Yeah?”

 

“Thanks… Thanks for not giving up on me. On my sister… Thanks for coming with… I know it wasn’t easy to put up with my moping--”

 

The teen snorted, cutting her boyfriend off with a peck on the lips. “None of that, Seraphee. I get it. She was your  _ world _ . She adored you. Adored us both. And we’ll find out what happened. Together. I told you when she vanished that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I stand by that. The only way you’re getting rid of me is if you push me off a damn cliff. And even then I’ll come back to haunt you. Got it, loverboy?”

 

He laughed. “Yeah. Yeah. Thanks…” 

 

She booped him on the nose. “Finish your lunch so we can get looking.”

 

“Yes mom.”

 

The pair snicker softly, then return to their given tasks. Jamie thought briefly of the ring in his pocket, and the promise he’d made to himself not to give it to her until he found out what had happened to Frisk. 

 

_ “Big brother, if you love Miss Bia, does that mean you’re gonna marry her and have a baby boy and a baby girl just like Mama and Daddy?” _

 

_ Jamie scooped up his little sister, spinning her around before setting her on his shoulders. “If I do ask her, I promise you’ll be the very first to know.” _

 

_ “And the babies?” Bright blue eyes sparkled at the thought of a niece and nephew, just like she and her big brother. He laughed nervously.  _

 

_ “Maybe, maybe.” _

 

_ “Maybe far away, or maybe real nearby, he may be pouring her coffee… She may be straightening his tie… Maybe in a house, all hidden by a hill… She’s sitting playing piano, he’s sitting paying a bill.” _

 

_ The elder sibling snorted. “Is that your thinly-veiled request for me to put in Annie again?” _

 

_ “No, but can we watch it?” _

 

“Jamie, are you alright? You’re crying again…”

 

Jamie hiccupped, wiping at his eyes. Sure enough, tears were tracing down his face. “Sorry, Bia.” The smile on his face is small, sad. One of remembrance. “I was just thinking… Do you remember Frisk’s favorite movie?”

 

“Oh, that’s an easy one. Annie. The old one.” Bianca smiled her own fond little grin.

 

“ _ Won’t you please come get your ba-aaaby…. _ ” Jamie hiccuped on the last word, fresh tears forming as he sang out the line.

 

Bianca let out a little gasp at the unexpected wave of melancholy that hit her. “ _ Maaaaaaybe…. _ ” Her own tears formed, wetting the violet frames of her glasses. “Don’t… Don’t worry, Jamie. We’ll find her… We’re coming to get our baby… and there’s no maybe about it.”

 

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“ _ Betcha they’re young. Betcha they’re smart. Bet they collect things like ashtrays and art. _ ” Frisk rubbed Papyrus’s back, singing along to words she knew by heart that still felt as though they came from another life.

 

“ _ Betcha they’re good. Why shouldn’t they be? Their one mistake was giving up me… _ ” She was tired. The flight over Snowdin and into Waterfall had winded her, and once back in the dark caverns of endless rain she’d elected to walk once again. It was only once in Waterfall that Paps started feeling any kind of distress. Spurred on by the memory of her near-death here, and the fear she was still trying to hide, he’d started fussing.

 

“ _ So maybe now it’s time. And maybe when I wake. They’ll be there calling me ‘baby’... maaaaaaaaaaybe. _ ”

 

So she’d begun to sing to him. She wasn’t really sure what possessed her to pick out this particular song, maybe she simply missed her family on the surface, maybe it was just the first one that came to her mind. 

 

“ _ Betcha he reads. Betcha she sews. Maybe she’s made me a closet of clothes. Maybe they’re strict. As straight as a line. Don’t really care, as long as they’re mine. _ ”

 

It didn’t really matter. Papyrus liked it, even though it made her heart feel heavy at leaving Miss Toriel. They could always go back, she supposed, once they found Sans. Maybe…

 

“ _ So maybe now this prayer's the last one of its kind...” _

 

She brushed past several of the blue flowers that repeated all they heard, hearing little snatches of her own song played back at her. There were a whole bunch of them, clustered around a large rock that was sheltered from the rain inside an alcove that wasn’t too visible from the main path. 

 

“ _ Won’t you please come get your ba-aaaby… _ ” She climbed onto the rock, using her pack as a pillow, and pulled Papyrus close. She’d have to keep looking in the morning. It was getting late, and Frisk was simply  _ tired _ . Tired, and lonely, and wishing there was somebody else there to make the decisions for her. Somebody smarter than her, who wouldn’t tell her she couldn’t help just because she was young. Jamie would have let her help. Jamie would’ve told off Miss Toriel and grabbed her and Paps and let them help.

 

Stars, she missed her big brothers. Both of them.

 

“ _ Maaaaaaybe… _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be focusing on Reach For the Stars (and my ever-expanding collabs with Lucy) for a while now that I've finished Stand By You.


	5. I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel frets, Bianca falls, and Undyne flees.

“She can’t have gotten too far, Your Highness.” Gerson asserted, strapping his hammer to his shell. “We’ll find the lass and the little one before that piece of work can get at her, I promise. Poor kids…”

 

Toriel wrung her hands. “I wish I could do more…” 

 

“Honestly, I don’t think she’ll be in any mood to listen to you, once we find her. She’s more likely to be hostile…” Scylla mused. “I said from the start their soul bond was an asset we shouldn’t overlook. And now it looks like she’d had enough of waiting for us to actually tap that resource… I’d wager she’s pretty angry.” 

 

“Deputy Scylla, that is really not helping.”

 

“Apologies, your highness.” The fish says contritely. “Don’t worry. We’ll bring them home. She can’t have gotten far, it’s only been a day and she’s carrying a toddler.”

 

Toriel nodded and thanked the pair, and they trooped out into Snowdin.

 

Once she was alone, the former Queen of all monsters sat upon her couch and cried. She cried for her lost sons, for her missing children, and for all the humans in between.

 

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The stars began to twinkle overhead as Bianca and Jamie set up their tent beside their campfire. By the time they were actually in bed, it was completely dark, the only light that of the moon and the dying embers of the fire pit they’d created. 

 

Bianca left their tent to douse said embers, belatedly remembering them just as she was falling asleep. She carefully climbed over the already-snoozing Jamie, knowing that he was a heavy enough sleeper that nothing short of an earthquake (and sometimes not even that) would rouse him. 

 

She grabbed her pack and unzipped the tent, zipping it behind her to minimize the chance of creepy-crawlies getting into their current bed. Her sneakers crunched on the leaves and twigs and she thanked her foresight in sleeping in her sneakers in case of emergency bathroom or fire safety trips. She rummaged through her bag until she found a water bottle, which was promptly uncapped and she sprayed the liquid all over the fire pit until nothing glowing remained.

 

“ _ Thank you for not burning down the mountain. _ ”

 

Bianca shrieked, stumbling backward. She looked up sharply, staring into the hooded face of a strange cloaked figure. She could see nothing of them but their dark cloak-- it didn’t quite look black in the light, so she felt it was safe to assume it was dark blue or purple. The hood completely obscured their face, and for a split second Bianca was sure she was staring into the face of death itself.

 

Then she caught sight of what they were holding in their hands, and her mind just shut down. “Who… Wha- How? I… Where did you-- Who the fuck are you and how did you get ahold of Frisk’s plushie?!”

 

The well-loved yellow-orange kitten plush stared up at her with glass eyes from the figure’s gloved hands. But Bianca was certain that Jamie had never removed Wyatt from his bag since they’d left the car.

 

Rather than answer, the figure turns and runs, their cloak fanning out behind them. Sneakered feet chase booted ones out of the camp without a thought. Jamie would have a freaking fit if he woke up and Frisk’s favorite toy was simply gone. And somehow Bianca doubted that he’d accept ‘a cloaked weirdo came into our camp and took it’.

 

“ _ Get back here you weird fuck _ !”

 

The person leapt over a large rock, and Bianca scrambled over it. She hadn’t even  _ seen _ the damn thing. But this guy had clearly known it was there. 

 

Nonsensical.

 

Suspicious.

 

She growled under her breath. This person obviously had a better idea of the terrain, but she was steadily gaining. Somehow.

 

Only a few more feet--

 

She lunged forward and threw out a hand, intending to grab them by the cloak and fling them both to the ground--

 

But her hand went right through them, as though they weren’t even there. She grabbed the plushie instead, confusedly fumbling at the soft fabric as her mind tried to catch up to her body now running on autopilot.

 

“ _ Good luck, Perseverance. _ ” 

 

She stared dumbly at the figure as they vanished into thin air, managing to screech to a halt.

 

A ghost? A… A monster? But no, those were just stories-- 

 

An ominous crumbling noise was the only warning Bianca had before the patch of dirt she stood upon simply collapsed.

 

With a shriek of utter terror, Bianca fell underground.

 

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Undyne waited until her parents were asleep before slipping out of her bedroom window and landing lightly outside of the house.

 

She’d heard them talking. Her parents, on the phone with her aunt. Frisk had run away. 

 

Gone to look for Sans on her own.

 

Well, Undyne wasn’t about to let some punk hybrid kid go up against some crazy madman with only a toddler as backup. She’d find Frisk first, and then… Undyne picked up her favorite spear from the rack beside the back door.

 

And then she’d go marching into battle with her new friend. It was the least she could do.

  
That jerkwad scientist wouldn’t know  _ what _ hit him.


	6. Call my name and save me from the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bianca meets a flower, Frisk meets a fish, and Jamie meets a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey  
> it's tuesday  
> have an update
> 
> zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bianca groaned feebly. Oh, god, everything  _ hurt _ and it was awful. The air smelled strongly of something bitter,and as she cracked open her eyes she saw blurry yellow blobs fanning out beneath her. 

 

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time for her to realize she didn’t have her glasses on. Bianca felt around nearly blindly, mumbling curses under her breath. She found her bag, Frisk’s plush cat, and one of her shoes before finally locating her spectacles hidden in what had turned out to be the large patch of buttercups she’d landed on. The bitter smell was probably coming from petals that had torn upon her sudden landing.

 

Bianca wiped her glasses off on her shirt, then set them carefully on the bridge of her nose.  “ _ Fuck _ !” The very first thing she noticed was, of course, the huge, spiderwebbing crack across one of the lenses, making it cloudy and nearly as bad as her actual vision. But she could still see better with the damned things than without, so she took a look around. 

 

The walls of the area she was in were rough, dark stone, going up and up and up and up until she laid eyes on the pinprick of a spot of light that she had fallen through. The entire chamber was lit with sunlight despite the distance. A distance she had no chance of climbing in the best of circumstances.

 

Slowly, Bianca climbed to her feet, knees nearly buckling from a sudden stabbing pain in her hip. “ _ Ow ow owowowowowow _ **_OW_ ** ! Fucking  _ hell _ , just what I needed…”

 

“ **Oh good, you’re awake!** ” A small, high pitched voice came from behind her, and she spun, staring around.

 

“ **Down here, Human!** ”

 

She looked down.

 

And saw a flower. With a face. Not a buttercup, simply a golden flower like the ones that infested every corner of the city due to their sticky seeds and fast growth. A flower with a  _ face _ . Talking to her.

 

She boggled at it, subconsciously clutching the plush to herself. Her first thought was that she was simply dreaming, but the pain she was feeling sort of disproved that. Maybe it was just a hallucination? 

 

“ **I was worried when I saw you lying there.** ” The flower continues, “ **Toriel is kind of distracted with Frisk running off, she hasn’t been to check the Ruins in days.** ”

 

Bianca was so lost in thoughts of what the flower  _ was _ that its words didn’t register with her for a moment. When what it had said  _ clicked _ , she dropped the plush and her bag and simply stared open-mouthed.

 

“ **What, is there something in my petals?** ”

 

Her hands were shaking. “Did… you say ‘Frisk’? As in ‘Frisk Seraphee’? Six years old, brown hair, blue eyes?”

 

The flower looked up at her with what she could only describe as a curious expression. “ **Yeah, do you know her?** ” It gasps suddenly. “ **I thought you looked familiar! You’re Bianca, right?** ”

 

“...Yes?” Oh god this thing knew her name and supposedly knew Frisk… And Frisk had run away from somebody? She was  _ still alive _ ? Here, in this cavern?

 

“ **Okay, come with me. There’s no time to lose! I’ll explain on the way, but we have to find her… She could be in huge trouble…** ”

 

Bianca shut her eyes. She didn’t really have any better options, and she had no idea how to get back to the surface of the mountain… And if Frisk really was alive, then she absolutely  _ had _ to find her and bring her home. For Caleb, and Beatrice… And Jamie. 

 

“Alright.” She bent down towards the flower. “I’ll follow your lead, I guess.”

 

The flower  _ leapt _ out of the soil and wound around her arm. “ **Thank you… You won’t regret this.** ”

 

She could only hope.

 

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“ _ Psst! Frisk! _ ”

 

The hybrid practically leapt into the air, spinning around with an attack already forming, only to drop it immediately. Papyrus whined.

 

“Undyne? What are you  _ doing _ ?”

 

The fish girl climbed the rest of the way out of the standing water, grinning at her. She had a spear strapped to her back. “I came to help, punk.”

 

“... You wanna  _ help _ ?” Frisk tilted her head in curiousity.

 

“Well, yeah! Just because the adults are all big and stuff means they think they know best, but while they flounder around in the dark, you actually can  _ find _ him with that bond of yours! And who knows what that crazy doc is doin’ to Sans! We gotta find him  _ fast _ , you know.”

 

“That’s what  _ I _ said!” Frisk threw her hands in the air, nearly dislodging Papyrus from her shoulders. 

 

“So when I heard you’d run I came to help, you know? I know these tunnels  _ really _ well. And I’m sure you’re capable enough on your own, but we’re friends and friends stick together.”

 

A small smile tugged at the corners of Frisk’s mouth. “... Thanks.”

 

“Hey, anytime, punk! Now we’ve got a skeleton to find and a big jerk to catch.” She grabbed the hybrid's hand and practically yanked her along.

 

Frisk couldn’t help a little giggle. 

 

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“Bianca?!  _ BIANCA _ !?”

 

Jamie’s desperate yell echoed back at him, but there was no kind of response. No answer. No sign of Bianca. He dialed her number on his cell one more, but all he got was voicemail and he vaguely remembered through his panic that her phone had died the day before.

 

He jolted when he began hear distorted laughter, and slowly looked up into the hollow eyes of the melting creature with the rictus grin. He screamed and stumbled back, slipping in the ashes of the fire pit and landing on his ass in front of where the tent had been pitched.

 

For the first time outside of his nightmares, the hallucination wasn’t simply in a dark corner, barely seen in Jamie’s peripheral vision. No, now it was right in front of him in broad daylight, staring at him with those empty sockets peering out of a melted skull and that huge, terrifying grin. “L̛͏o͠s̶e̛͜ ҉s̶om̷et͟͏h͘҉i̧͞n͠g̡̨͜,҉͞ A͞n̡͏g͜e̡l͞?” 

 

He can’t understand the distorted noises, yet somehow he knows what they mean anyway.  _ Lose something, angel? _ The… The… The  _ monster _ had asked. 

 

Suddenly, it clicked.

 

“You… You know. You  _ know _ !” He lunges for the  _ thing _ , hands outstretched as though to throttle it.

 

But he did not move. Jamie felt rooted to the spot, as though gravity is pressing in on him from all sides. Terror consumes him as the creature makes another horrible, screechy noise.

 

“S̢͢h̵͞e͏͢ ͜w̴i̴̛͠l̡҉l͠ ͘d͘͢i̵̧e̸ ̨d͘͘͟o҉͠҉w͏̡n͝ ̡͜ţ͘͡h̴͡er̡͢ę̡͡,̷̸͘ ̵̢A͞n̨g̸e̷͡l͏. ̴͝Įt̢ ͢͟͡i͢͡͏s̨̧ ̡͟͟h̸͏̛er̴̸͡ ̶d͏҉es҉t̡i̧ny͟͠.̧” 

 

“Wha… What do you mean?” Jamie demanded of the now-flickering shade. It cackled. 

 

"̴I̧͢͡t͘͝'͟҉s͢҉ ̕͡t̶̵͡o̶͜o ̴l̷͜a̡t͠͏͘e.̴"͡

 

And with that, the vision vanished.

  
Jamie’s own curses echoed back at him.

 


	7. Save your breath, it's far from over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk hears a voice in the dark and Bianca learns that Asgore is Bad at Names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So tired. Happy fucking easter everyone

They were getting nowhere.

 

Frisk’s mumbled cursing seemed to amuse Undyne more than anything else, which only pissed her off further. Or perhaps Undyne was amused at the way she kept shaking out her wings in agitation, or the puffed-up state of her feathers. 

 

Whatever the reason for Undyne’s mirth, Frisk was getting annoyed fast. Still, she ignored the distraction and kept her focus on the goal-- Finding Sans was more important than a potential, petty disagreement that may escalate, and bring the wrong kind of attention down on them. She was grateful for Undyne’s offer of assistance, after all. There was no need to start another FIGHT after killing her once already. 

 

At that thought, Frisk shivered. She had killed her kinda-sorta-friend… and she didn’t really feel  _ guilty _ . After all, it was undone.

 

Erased. 

 

And the fact that she couldn’t bring herself to feel  _ guilt _ over killing Undyne, over killing the monsters of the Ruins… it scared her. She was  _ supposed  _ to feel bad, right? Frisk knew on an intellectual level that the higher one’s LOVE was, the easier it was to gain more… the Doctor had deigned to explain  _ that _ much. But somehow she hadn’t really put together the ramifications of that. Hadn’t realized the true price. 

 

Had she given up the kindness in her SOUL for the strength she’d been forced to gain? Would she get worse and worse until not even her siblings could bring her out of her rage?

 

What if she couldn’t undo it? What if her reloads stopped working? What if--

 

“Hey, calm down. We’ll find Sans. I promise.” A pair of wet, scaly arms wrapped around Frisk and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Undyne snickered again and let go, coming around Frisk with Papyrus in her arms. “I won’t let you freak out on me, punk. Now come on.” She directed Frisk to a small tunnel, neatly invisible due to being under the water level. “Hold your breath, bird brain. That passage leads to a pathway that goes  _ under _ Waterfall-- we’ll be able to walk the length of the place and see if anything trips your bond.”

 

Frisk took a large breath and pinched her nose, folding her wings and diving into the tunnel. She half-crawled, half swam through the dark, murky water, trying not to think about how cold and wet she was, how much her feathers itched, how lightheaded she was getting. She felt her way along the tunnel, moving as quickly as possible and praying that there would be a place to breath soon. Undyne followed close behind with Papyrus, having zero issue with the water themselves. 

 

Maybe it was because of the lack of air going to her brain, but Frisk was suddenly struck with the wish that Roslyn had been a fish instead of a bird.

 

As blackness crept into the corners of her vision (not that she could tell in the pitch dark of the tunnel) Undyne gave her a shove upward and her head broke the surface of the water, the murky liquid streaming from her hair, her clothes, her feathers. Frisk coughed and wheezed as the fish girl shoved her the rest of the way out onto the dry rocks. 

 

“Oh  _ stars _ that sucked…” Frisk panted.

 

“It was forty-five seconds!” Undyne protested. Papyrus jumped out of her arms and shook himself off, scattering water drops all over the place.

 

“Have you ever not breathed for forty-five seconds?!” 

 

“... well, no.”

 

“Exactly.” Frisk shook her wings out frantically, snarling at nothing. Water droplets flew everywhere once more. “At least it’s dry.” 

 

“And like I said, you can basically check all of Waterfall here!”

 

Frisk’s eyes widened at the implication. “Well come on, then!” Small, wet brown sneakers spun around and rushed into the darkness, slapping against the surprisingly dry rock. Papyrus’s claws scraped across the stone as he followed with an excited bark.

 

They’d barely gone thirty feet before it happened.

 

/Come on, Sans. Breathe. I know you’re scared--/

 

‘CHARA!’ Frisk shouted with the bond.

 

/Frisk?/

 

‘sis?’

 

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“ **It’s** **_critical_ ** **that Toriel doesn’t fucking see you, Bianca.** ” Flowey said for the umpteenth time. Bianca had quickly learned that the flower had a blue streak a mile wide, despite his politeness upon meeting her. He had given her a brief explanation of the events surrounding Frisk’s fall into the Underground-- how her SOUL was damaged and she ended up in the ‘care’ of a psychotic sicko of a scientist. The flower explained that, in the chaos, he’d ended up with a fair portion of Frisk’s memories due to coming into contact with the damaged portions of her soul. Bianca didn’t really understand how Frisk could grow wings and change so much, or how he could gain some of her past memories, but Flowey assured her it was inevitable after such a drastic change in the makeup of her SOUL. It was (supposedly) the very culmination of one’s being, after all. 

 

Bianca supposed she would just have to wait and see. There was a worry in the back of her mind that Frisk may no longer  _ be _ Frisk, but until she saw the girl there was nothing but conjecture. Conjecture, fear, and uncertainty. 

 

And so, Bianca and her current companion began their sneak through Home, doing their best not to make a sound that the… Giant fluffy goat lady… would notice. It was easy to sneak past her, however, since she was sobbing into her hands on the couch. Bianca felt bad just walking by, but she didn’t have a lot of options. 

 

The pair slipped through the purple doors at the end of the basement, and Bianca found herself wishing she had a winter coat. She shivered, cursing as she began to walk along the packed-down path in the snow. There was a whole forest down here!

 

“ **Okay, we need to get through Snowdin as quickly as possible. I know for a fact Frisk isn’t here. I already searched it.** ” Flowey said. “ **So we need to get to Waterfall.** ”

 

“Snowed in? Waterfall? Not very imaginative…”

  
  


Flowey laughed. “ **The King’s never been good at names. When he and Toriel had a son, they named him ‘Asriel’.** ”

 

“... What’s wrong with that?”

 

“ **The King’s name is Asgore.** ”

 

It took Bianca a moment to put the pieces together, but once she did she snickered. “Oh, poor kid, to be saddled with a name like that…”

 

“ **I know, right? Though I don’t really have any room to talk.** ”

 

“Flowey the Flower?”

 

“ **Your best fuckin’ friend in the whole goddamn world, kid.** ”

 

“... Heh. I’d have to say that honor goes to Jamie…” She pushed a low-hanging branch out of the way.

 

“ **You really love him. It’s… Beautiful.** ”

 

“... Yeah.” Bianca smiled fondly.

 

“ **Don’t worry.** ” He reassured. “ **Everything will work out. You’ll see.** ”

  
“I hope so....”


	8. If I could light the world up for just one day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk comes up with a plan, and there is a lot of running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, what's it been, four months? IDK, have an update. Sorry it took so long. Hope you enjoy! :)

Finding Sans was not as easy as it seemed. He had no idea where he was, for one, and without that knowledge Frisk was loathe to leave hearing range, even though doing so was fairly necessary as they would have to go back to the top level of Waterfall and head in the direction of Sans’s mental cries. 

 

‘I don’t wanna go!’

 

/You kind of have to, though./

 

Undyne ran up beside her. “Okay, punk. What’s wrong?”

 

“Well I found Sans but… He doesn’t know where he is. So we’d have to go up and find him... A-and then I’d lose the connection again!” She sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes.

 

“... All right. Don’t cry, Frisk. I know what we can do.”

 

The hybrid wiped at her eyes. “Y-you do?” She hiccupped.

 

Undyne nodded. “First, you’re going to find where your connection is the strongest. Then, I’m going to go up top. I’ll track down the corresponding area, come back and get you, and we can search it from there.”

 

Frisk thought it over. That… it was a time-consuming idea, but Undyne would be better and faster at searching the tunnels by herself than dragging her and a noisy toddl--  _ noise _ . 

 

“I have an idea!”

 

/You do?/ A beat, as Chara read her thoughts on the matter. /Oh that’s genius!/

 

‘that might work!’

 

‘NOISE NOISE NOISE!!’

 

“Spill, punk!”

 

“Can you tell if someone, say, throws a bunch of yellow magic at the roof of this from topside?”

 

“Well… it would probably make some very strange ripples in the water and a loud noise at least.”

 

“Great, so here’s the plan….”

 

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Bianca had made it through Snowdin with surprising ease. Nobody seemed to have even realized she was a human. It was odd, with how desperate Flowey had said the other monsters were to get ahold of two more human SOULS. Shouldn’t they at least be aware of what one looked like? 

 

Whatever. At least they hadn’t run into trouble. 

 

The very first thing Bianca had noted down in her notebook since arriving Underground was that Toriel had been the Queen of the monsters. The very second thing was that Waterfall was  _ wet _ . Not that she needed to remind herself of  _ that _ , but simply because  _ holy fuck Waterfall is  _ **_wet_ ** !

 

“Yeah, this isn’t exactly my favorite fucking part of the Underground.” 

 

“ _ Shhh, calm down Papyrus, we’ll find him! _ ” Bianca’s head snapped around at the name ‘Papyrus’, uttered by a voice she didn’t recognize any longer but that had to be  _ Frisk _ .

 

There was only a bright blue flower.

 

“Fuckin’ echo flowers….” Flowey mumbled. 

 

“Echo flowers?” Bianca pressed.

 

“Yeah, they’re all over the goddamn place. There’s this girl… she’s like… one of them… and I’m pretty sure she plants ‘em. Or maybe they planted her. Who fucking knows. Anyway, they repeat whatever sounds were nearest them last. At least we know they’ve been here.”

 

“Okay, so that’s… what she sounds like, now?”

 

“Yeah. Beautiful, right? She sounds like a goddamn bird.”

 

“... It didn’t sound like her.”

 

“... I think she doesn’t like it. But it is what it is, you know. Nothing that can be done to change it.” Kind of like how nothing could change that he was a flower now.

 

Flowey was cut out of his musings by a massive  _ boom _ . It thundered through the tunnels like a physical force, and Flowey yelped and clung tighter to Bianca’s shoulder as she leapt into the air. 

 

“What the ever-loving  _ fuck was that _ !?” He squeaked. 

 

Bianca’s eyes narrowed. “I always had a saying when I was babysitting Frisk and she ran off in the middle of the store or whatnot.”

 

“And what does that have to do with--”

 

“‘Follow the sound of trouble and you’ll find the troublemaker.’” And with that, she shot towards through the tunnel, renewed hope giving her a second wind and lending her feet wings.

 

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_ Boom _ .

 

Frisk threw another massive yellow feather at the ceiling of the tunnel, making the whole ground shake.

 

‘the doc’s freaking out, sis!’

 

‘Just a bit longer. Paps, can you hear it yet?’

 

‘NO NOISE!’ Her little brother responded from Undyne’s arms, on the level above her. ‘NOT CLOSE YETS!’

 

‘Keep going!’

 

_ Boom! _

 

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Undyne ran as fast as her legs could push her as the floor shook once more. She was starting to recognize where they were; Not that she didn’t know the tunnels like the back of her fins, but this particular area had always given her bad vibes.

 

_ Boom _ . Another shuddering echo shook the tunnels. She was getting close. “Paps, tell her to exit through the tunnel we went in, then take a left. She’ll reach a fork, take another left. Then go right at the second intersection, then another left immediately. Then keep going straight and she’ll find us. You can here Sans from here, right?”

 

Papyrus barked an affirmative as he relayed the instructions to Frisk. 

 

Sans had to be nearby. They were so  _ close. _ Undyne paced impatiently through the standing water, shaking her head and waiting less than patiently.

 

Fifteen minutes later, splashing footsteps could clearly be heard coming down the tunnel. Undyne turned, expecting to come face-to-face with her red-eyed friend, but instead she came face-to-thighs with someone else entirely.

 

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Doctor Wingdings Gatser was nervous. The banging had stopped, but that didn’t mean it was safe. He had no doubt that the ground-shaking booms were some kind of tactic to track him down, though he couldn’t imagine the purpose. 

 

A glance down at his caged experiment revealed the childlike form looking entirely too smug.

 

What had been done? “Wipe that look off your face, boy.” 

 

The small skeleton’s rictus grin only grew larger.

 

“What do you know!?”

 

“Nothin’.” WDG-1S said ‘innocently’.

 

Blue magic lit his soul and flung him against the wall of the cage. The boy only laughed, stunned slightly but also entirely too amused by the whole thing. He seemed calmer now, despite the hysteria. 

 

Gaster took a deep breath and thought for a moment. There was a logical connection, there had to be. 

 

Even as he tried to put the pieces together he heard shouting out in the tunnels. He couldn’t make out the words, but the boy in the cage perked up, smile growing impossibly larger.

 

However it had happened, Gaster knew he’d been found. And based on the way his experiment was acting, the little freak knew it before he did.

 

The noises. They must have used the noises and the soul bond between the children to narrow down the locations he could be hiding in! Which meant that familiar voice shouting incomprehensibly must be Scylla! The Guard was closing in, and if he stayed here he’d be a sitting duck.

 

Without another moment’s hesitation, he hefted the cage in magic and his briefcase in his arms and bolted from his bolthole.

 

WDG-1S started screaming bloody murder the moment they were out of the lab and he cursed, knocking the thing against the sides of its prison until it quieted with a whimper. Gaster smirked and ran, water splashing all around him as he fled towards Hotland.

 

He may be going down, but he wasn’t about to make it easy.


	9. Tell me where you are so I can stop and take a breath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We spend most of the chapter in the eyes of fish

Undyne had always thought that a human in the Underground would’ve had her attacking first and asking questions never. She’d always dreamed of capturing one, of living up to her Aunt Scylla’s reputation. 

 

She’d never really stopped her gung-ho fantasies to wonder  _ what if _ .

 

What if the human was twice her size? Staring down at her through cracked, purple framed glasses and looking as surprised to see her as Undyne swallowed thickly.

 

What if she was already friends with a human? Or rather a hybrid? What would Frisk think if she tried to capture this human woman?

 

What if she was in the company of another friend? The flower from their meeting in Snowdin --Flowey-- was wrapped around the woman’s shoulder, poking out of her long, curly black hair.

 

What if Undyne didn’t know what she wanted anymore? Her world had been turned upside down by Alphys’s friends and she just didn’t know what to do next.

 

“ **Undyne** !” Flowey said urgently, interrupting her panicked thoughts. “ **Have you seen Frisk** ?”

 

“... That’s a human, Flowey.” Undyne said with a calmness she certainly wasn’t feeling. Was she shaking?

 

“ **Well fucking spotted, Fishface! What about Frisk?** ” 

 

“Why are you with a human?!” Undyne shouted, all confusion leaving her and anger seeping in.  _ Why can’t this be easy _ ?

 

“ **She’s looking for Frisk, Undyne! Have you fucking seen the bird-girl or not?!** ”

 

_ Ting _ !

 

The human gasped, staring down at the purple heart now floating above her chest. With a flash, it turned green, and the human was immobile.

 

Undyne was  _ definitely _ shaking. “Why!? Why would you be looking for her?! Who are you?!” Several dozen small spears formed out of white magic behind her, and she pointed the real one at the woman with one arm, cradling Papyrus’s small form in her other. “I-I won’t, you can’t--  _ I won’t let you hurt her _ !” A fast-paced piano melody filled the air, and Undyne listened to her battle theme, her  _ real _ battle theme for the very first time as she stood her ground.

 

“I don’t want to hurt her! I’d never-”

 

“ **Undyne, listen-** ”

 

“ _ Fight me _ !” The fish girl slung a confused Papyrus into the standing water behind her with a  _ splish _ , hoping the toddler was smart enough to stay safe.

 

Before she could do more than that, a series of curses and muffled splashing came from the tunnel behind the human.

 

“Undyne! Undyne  _ where are you _ the Doctor is running away!” Frisk came careening around the corner and crashed headlong into the human’s knees, sending all three of them-- human, hybrid, and flower, crashing into the water.

 

Spluttering, Frisk scrambled to her hands and knees, looking around in confusion. The tunnel was now lit by the sopping feathers in her hair, glowing evermore brightly in her agitation. She took in the scene, Undyne ready to fight, battle music and all. The human’s soul, hanging in midair with dozens of sharp spears pointing at it. And the human herself, Flowey cursing on her shoulder as she picked herself up.

 

“Undyne. Put those away.” Frisk said firmly, not taking her eyes off the human, who was also staring back at her. Papyrus barked, doggy paddling over to his sister and making distressed noises.

 

Slowly, Undyne lowered her spear. She looked back and forth between the other two females and Papyrus for a moment.

 

“Bianca?” Frisk’s voice was quiet, uncertain. She sounded every bit the young girl she was. 

 

The human gave a strangled cry, lunging for Frisk. Before Undyne could react, she was clinging to the hybrid and bawling her eyes out. “Francine, Frisk, Frisk, Frisk…” She sniffled. “You’re okay, you’re alive, you’re  _ here _ …”

 

Frisk swallowed thickly. “Yeah. Yeah, Bia, I’m okay. I’m fine.” She hugged the human back. “I’m fine but my new brother’s been kidnapped and we have to get him back, Bianca. I’ll explain later but I have to go now.” She pried the human’s arms off of her.

 

They both stood, Frisk picking up Papyrus and busily rushing past both Undyne and the human, and hurrying down the tunnel.

 

‘Bianca’, with Flowey on her shoulder, and Undyne followed bemusedly.

 

“I thought we were close?” Undyne asked. Frisk had an air of panic to her movement-- the appearance of the human she clearly knew had thrown her off, but the panic was still visible in her twitching feathers and wild eyes.

 

“Our plan backfired. He’s doing a runner! Towards Hotland!”

 

Flowey cussed once more as the group picked up speed as one.

 

“Punk!” Undyne snarled. “I’ll rip him apart!” And she would, too. Without hesitation.

 

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_ She will die down there, Angel _ .

 

James tugged at his own hair, desperately trying to come up with some kind of explanation for the… nightmarish… being… that had spoken to him. The melting creature with the malicious grin and empty eyes that had told him flat out that Bianca was going to die.

 

Or possibly… that Frisk was? If she was currently alive? The thought sparked fresh hope but he shook it away, returning to packing up the tent. He had to find Bianca. He had to find Frisk. Nobody was going to die, not if James Seraphee had anything to say about it.

 

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“What was all that banging about, do you wonder?” Scylla panted as she jogged alongside Gerson through the tunnels of Waterfall. They’d been in Snowdin at the time that the massive shudders had shaken the caverns of Waterfall. There had only been six or seven before they had stopped, but it was concerning.

 

“I’d bet my hammer that it has something to do with the wayward Doc or our little runaway lassie and her baby brother.” Gerson wasn’t even breaking a sweat, and that wasn’t because turtles don't actually sweat. It was almost insulting, the ease in which her boss could press on despite his old,  _ old  _ age. Scylla had trained her entire life, but she could never hope to match the head of the Royal Guard. 

 

“You’re that sure?” She huffed, debating with herself on whether she could get away with swimming now that they were on her home turf. She’d be faster than  _ this _ , certainly.

 

“They seem to be at the center of every mess these last few days, lass!” Gerson cackled as though he were having the time of his life. Stupid sprightly senior… Scylla followed her boss over a pair of bridge flowers and onto solid ground that flew beneath her feet almost too fast to notice before she was splashing once more.

 

She hadn’t run this much in one shot in… she’d never run this much in one shot. All the way from the middle of the Ruins to halfway through Waterfall in what, four hours? No wonder she was so exhausted…

  
Still, the fish woman pressed on. This was the closest thing to a lead they’d had in days. They  _ had  _ to find those kids.


	10. I don’t know what you’ve been told but this gal right here’s gonna rule the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catching up with the old man isn't exactly easy.

_ This chase is taking entirely too long. _ That was Frisk’s thought as she tried to distract herself from the heat of Hotland and how tired she was. Her little brown sneakers pounded the burning, red earth, Bianca close on her heels and Papyrus loping alongside her. They’d had to leave Undyne behind-- Hotland was just too dangerous for the fish girl. She certainly wouldn’t be able to manage keeping up with them in this heat. And right now they needed to stick together and move as quickly as possible.

 

Still, her legs ached with every step and her muscles burned. She had no doubt that she would be able to perform purple magic without a thought, she was pushing herself so hard. Yet Frisk didn’t even contemplate slowing down. The stitch in her side was unimportant. The sweat pouring down her face a mere irritation. She’d felt worse pains, pushed herself harder. This was required. This was for Sans. 

 

The pain she was feeling now was nothing,  _ nothing _ ,  **_nothing_ ** compared to the suffering she’d go through if the Doctor successfully managed to escape with Sans. She couldn’t handle the devastation a second time, and so she ran, listening to Sans as he sent her directions through the bond. Every turn the Doctor took was mirrored and while she wasn’t sure if she was gaining on him she knew she wasn’t losing ground. If she were, she wouldn’t be hearing Sans at all.

 

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Behind her, Bianca grunted, barely keeping up with Frisk’s determined sprint. But she pushed past what she was feeling in much the same way Frisk was clearly doing. Bianca was determined. She was going to persevere, she was going to help Frisk find and save her other adopted brother and then Bianca was going to find a way to get all three of them to the Surface so she could deliver them to their sibling. 

 

Bianca focused on that instead of how she was sucking in air with strangled gasps, how her side felt full of knives and her sneakers squished the slightest bit when they made contact with the scorched earth. She was pretty sure the soles were melting. No, no, focus. Frisk, Sans, and Papyrus meeting Jamie. The look on Jamie’s face when she brought him not only his precious baby sister, but also two more siblings to shower with love and spoil rotten. And she knew him well enough to know that’s exactly what he would do. The moment Frisk proclaimed that Sans and Papyrus were her brothers, Jamie would welcome them with open arms. He was just that kind of person. And while it would take a little while, he’d love them just as much as Frisk did. 

 

Beatrice and Caleb would welcome the two into their home if only because Frisk would not willingly be separated from them, but they were just as loving as Jamie and would no doubt take to the pair in time. She had only secondhand stories from Flowey to go along with Frisk’s current desperation, but she still knew her favorite munchkin had a very strong bond with Sans and Papyrus, and they would flourish as part of the family. 

 

She was so caught up in her musings that she nearly ran into someone, and had to duck around them with a shouted apology. Belatedly, she realized they were no longer even in the area with the heat and red earth and had actually entered a literal hotel. The place was swarming with monsters that went completely ignored by Frisk as she rudely shoved and ducked around them to continue on her straight path. Bianca hadn’t even questioned how Frisk knew where to go, there just wasn’t time. 

 

Bianca tried to be a little more courteous as she dodged and weaved around bemused hotel patrons, but she still had to do her fair share of shoving just to keep Frisk in sight. She finally saw the girl barrel through another door and leapt after her, getting through just before it closed. She closed the distance between them, and before they knew it the three were running over an unsettling black void across what seemed to be a glass bridge.

 

And, in the hallway ahead, lit by blue light, was a tall, stick-thin figure in a filthy lab coat, still running away. The blue light was surrounding a floating cage, and contained within was a small, child-shaped figure.

 

Frisk gave a soft, strangled cry and spread her wings. If it were even possible she went  _ faster _ , the flapping appendages augmenting her tired legs before they left the ground completely, her wings pumping so fast that they were nothing but scarlet and yellow blurs. The force of it carried Bianca’s charge towards the figure far, far faster than she could possibly run, and the feathers in Frisk’s hair began to glow brighter than they had been previously before suddenly shifting to orange.

 

Face set in determination, Frisk dove at the back of the man who held her brother, who had hurt her so badly, and there was no fear. No fear, no hesitation, and a  _ deluge _ of orange feathers formed around her. They swirled like a tornado, a cyclone of color that quickly engulfed the girl and hid her from view.

 

Just before she came into contact, she  _ shrieked _ , one single word, and the scientist stumbled to a sudden halt.

 

“ **_Gaster!_ ** ” 

 

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Just as Frisk had hoped, her yell had startled the scientist into stopping for just a moment. She only  _ needed _ that moment.

 

The cyclone of Bravery magic that surrounded her slammed into him first. Then, hands outstretched and eyes glowing,  _ she  _ barreled into him with all the speed she could muster. Sans’s cage went flying in a different direction, and she distantly heard it crash against a wall. The pair of them tumbled down the hall, her unexpected attack leaving him floundering for a few precious moments as she clawed at his face and formed as much yellow and orange magic as she could manage. Her battle theme played in the air around them and his soul appeared, and she took the opportunity to deal as much harm as was possible during this tumble. She was unlikely to have a better chance.

 

He gained his bearings quickly, turning her soul blue and flinging her away. Frisk flew back across the hall and landed in a heap at Papyrus’s feet. She leapt to her feet to find that the Doctor was already standing, brushing himself off and tutting.

 

“Poor form, little girl. Attacking while my back is turned? And here I thought it was the Guard chasing me.” He laughed now, bitter and chilling. Frisk would’ve grit her teeth if not for the fact that her chest was literally heaving for breath. 

 

He was always talking down to her.  _ Always _ . Her eyes burned as she glowered at him, getting her breathing under control and clenching her fists. He was the worst.  _ I know best, 3-F _ .  _ Do as you’re told, little girl!  _ Well, she was sick of it, sick of  _ him _ . Sick of the looming shadow that threatened to take away her happiness, sick of the  _ beast _ that stole her brother.

 

He seemed so unaffected by her attack, and she was sick of that smug, manic grin, too. 

 

Frisk set her stance. Papyrus charged his blaster. In the background, Bianca and Flowey tried to break Sans out of his cage.

 

Gaster only laughed.

 

“This is all that’s come to stop me? My other little projects, a human, and a soulless flower. No Queen to protect you, no little tech genius to rescue you in the dead of night, 3-F. What are you going to do now?”

 

**_*Being entirely done with Gaster’s shit fills you with determination.*_ **

 

“I’m going,” She hissed, “To kick your sorry ass up and down this corridor, old man!”

 

He only laughed again. “I’d like to see you try!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's about to go down.


	11. I don't like your little games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk, Papyrus, and Sans v Gaster, round one, FIGHT!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double-length chapter today. If you didn't read the one I put up last night yet, then make sure you do.

Frisk didn’t waste any time in throwing herself into the air with her own Integrity magic. There was limited room in the corridor, but being in the air put the world on an xyz plane rather than the xy than it would’ve been. She needed every advantage she could get-- this was the man who had  _ taught _ her how to fight. He knew her usual tricks.

 

Thankfully, she’d picked up a few more since fleeing the dark halls of his lab.

 

A flurry of bones and syringes shaped of white magic was slung up at her almost carelessly, and she dodged what she could, and beat off the rest with a hastily conjured bone made of light blue magic. This seemed to surprise the Doctor as much as it did her. She’d never tried to conjure a bone before, she had just been hoping for something heavier and more solid than a feather and her wish had been granted. The thing felt like a wiffle bat in her hands and she gave it a testing swing before smirking. The weight was perfect to swing satisfyingly. Her eyes narrowed as she smirked at the Doctor.

 

This was her boogeyman, the monster in the closet. But she was almost seven, now. Too old to believe in the boogeyman, as far as she was concerned. “That all you got, Doctor? If so, I confess myself…  _ disappointed _ .” The flying girl snapped her fingers and with it changed his soul color. Several slashes of her arm later he was trapped on a plane of strings, and it was his turn to laugh as she sent simple purple feathers down the line. 

 

“And I see you’re still throwing the same punches, bitch.” His dodges were as effortless as his attack had been, but Frisk had been expecting that. Her smirk only widened as she successfully herded the skeleton man into position, and the knot of yellow feathers that she had been forming in the air above this specific area shot down, their sharp points and razor edges cutting deep into his hp.

 

“Or perhaps you  _ have _ learned a thing or two.” He admitted begrudgingly, turning her soul blue and sending her crashing to the floor as gravity made itself  _ very _ obvious. “Not that it matters. You’ll be brought to heel soon eno--” A laser beam smashed into him and sent him skidding back a few more feet as Papyrus made himself known. 

 

The blaster puppy growled low in his throat, opening his maw and charging another blast. 

 

“Insolent litt-” He was cut off yet again as Frisk lunged forwards rather than up and smacked him across the chest with her bone weapon, now a glowing orange.

 

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He threw 3-F against a wall. It barely put a dent in her HP, but it made him feel better about being caught out twice in a row.

 

That was when the cascade of bones smacked into him from behind, each one barely stinging but together creating a very large gap in his own HP. He whipped his head around to see that S-1 had been successfully broken loose by the human woman and flower, the cage lying busted and discarded a ways away.

 

Gaster saw  _ red _ . Rather than attack any of the children, he zeroed in on the woman. She yelped as her soul was pulled into the battle. It glowed a deep, pulsing purple. F-3 gave a cry of fright and he smirked, turning it blue and flinging her into a wall. Then the ceiling. Ten another wall. Over and over and over and over and  _ over again _ until blood splattered the hall.

 

“Bianca!” F-3 shouted as he carelessly tossed the woman’s limp form away. He turned back to the attack, only to be met with a hybrid that was much, much angrier than he expected. And considering he’d expected she would be furious at having her friend hurt, possibly killed, that was quite a feat. But no, F-3 now looked  _ wroth _ , and incredibly frustrated.

 

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She’d tried counting the resets. She’d tried keeping track. But she lost it somewhere around two hundred. This was the best run so far but goddammit it seemed no matter  _ what _ she did he still managed to get Bianca every. Single. Time! She’d tried shouting warnings, tried distracting the old man, tried begging her to run. But no matter what she did, Bianca always ended up in a heap, limp as a ragdoll and barely breathing. 

 

It had gone past upsetting her.

 

Gone past anger. 

 

Gone past fury.

 

Past frustration.

 

Past being seriously pissed off.

 

Frisk had never felt rage like she was currently. It burned in her soul, sent her blood singing with fury. It almost looped around-- she was so fucking pissed off that she was almost calm. Numb. 

Her bondmates were just as frustrated as she was, but they were barely in her peripherals. She was so angry that it blocked the bond, clogged her soul with hatred and LOVE and she hissed. 

She’d had  _ enough. _

 

Words came unbidden to her lips as she readied another attack. Her voice was steady and calm, almost creepily monotone even to her ears.

 

“ _ I don’t like your little games, don’t like your tilted stage. The role you made me play-- _ ” His Soul went from purple to blue and she flung him about like a ragdoll in much the same way he’d just done to Bianca. The difference was that Sans had sharp, blue bones waiting to impale his form on each wall. Papyrus was guarding Bianca, ready to block any stray attacks that came anywhere near the hopefully still alive woman. “ _ \--The Fool. No, I don’t like you. _ ”

 

He snarled and tried to return the favor, but Frisk shrugged off the blue magic and shot into the air. His own magic was overpowered by hers, cocooning her soul in a protective dark blue bubble. “ _ I don’t like your perfect crime. How you laugh when you lie. You said the fault was mine. _ ”

 

She dodged and blocked as more bones and syringes flew at her. She was at about half her HP, and she had no intention of losing any more to attacks. Below her, Sans pulled his own dodging act, sliding back and forth and seeming to not care about the many near-misses.

 

“ _ Isn’t cool. No. I don’t like you. _ ” Frisk sang the words bitterly. Her fingers were burnt. Charred, even. Still she pushed magic through. Even though it was now creating a slow but steady drain on her own HP. She wasn’t about to give the old man a break just because she was in pain. “ _ But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time! _ ” She held him in place with purple magic while Sans whaled on him with conjured bones. The sheer amount of them was making a difference, and Gaster was starting to look the worse for wear. “ _ Honey, I rose up from the dead-- _ ” Frisk was  _ feeling _ worse for wear. “ _ \-- I do it all the time! _ ” 

 

This time he  _ did  _ try to attack Papyrus, clearly hoping to distract them from their tag-team of him. Frisk snarled and aborted his attack before he could even finish it. 

 

By tackling him. “ _ I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined! I check it once-- _ ” Another heavy bone formed in her hands, this one blinding yellow, and she whacked him over the head with it. " _ \-- Then I check it twice! _ ” She did her best to pin him down, Sans helping by turning his soul blue, and simply began beating him with her bone. Was the skin on her hands actually turning black? It was certainly cracking and peeling, and the burning pain was climbing up her arms, slowly. “ _ Oh, look what you made me do, look what you made me do!  _ _ Look what you just made me do! Look what you just made me- Ooh, look what you made me do! Look what you made me do! Look what you just made me do! Look what you just made me do! _ ”

 

He finally managed to break free of Sans’s magic and throw her back, and she frowned. He had a  _ lot _ of HP. 

 

Frisk picked herself up just in time to dive out of the way of a Gaster Blaster firing, and Papyrus returned fire with a  _ whump _ , destroying the construct bone head. Frisk glowered at the old man.

 

She raised a hand, and a cascade of orange and blue feathers shot at the Doctor as hse climbed to her feet once again. She’d blatantly stolen the move from Asgore, but it worked-- Gaster couldn’t freeze in place and move at the same time. “ _ I don’t like your kingdom keys. They once belonged to me. _ ” Sans slid out of the way of another attack, and she pulled him further away by turning his soul blue and dragging him. He did the same for her a moment later. “ _ You ask me for a place to sleep -- locked me out-- and threw a feast. _ ” 

 

“what?” Sans broke in, but she only shot him a tired grin and took to the air again.

 

“ _ The world moves on-- another day, another drama, drama! _ ” She swooped down and scooped up Papyrus, and dive-bombed Gaster while her baby bro fired his laser right at the old man. “ _ But not for me, not for me-- All I think about is karma! And then the world moves on but one thing’s for sure: Maybe I got mine but you’ll get yours! _ ” She and Papyrus slammed into him, knocking the scientist back a few feet. 

 

He just wouldn’t go  _ down _ . She checked his HP only to find that he was barely half depleted. She was throwing everything she had at the old man, and so were her brothers! “ _ But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time! _ ” An idea came to her, as she eyed not the doctor, but the long purple bridge over a seemingly endless black void at the end of the hall. The small corridor they were in was flanked by bridges and voids, one being the glass one she’d run over to get here, the other being this long purple bridge. 

 

She had no idea how far down that blackness went, but if he went down, there wouldn’t be any coming up for quite a while. “ _ Honey, I rose up from the dead-- I do it all the time! _ ”

 

/That’s the CORE. If he falls down there, he’s not coming up. Period./ Chara broke in.

 

Excellent. Frisk dropped Papyrus into Sans’s waiting arms and threw herself at the doctor again, driving him backwards slowly with her bone club, step by step. They were so close. Sans turned her soul blue and kept pushing her forwards, preventing the doctor from getting ahold of it and stopping her from leading him back. “ _ I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined! _ ” 

 

He shot more bones and syringes, and Frisk hissed in pain as the attacks connected. Between the close range attack and the continued drain from using so much magic, She was nearing the end of her rope. “ _ I check it once, then I check it twice. _ ” Everything hurt. But she was going to see this through to the end. She was going to beat the big bad wolf. She was going to protect her friends, her family. She was going to avenge Bianca.

 

With a feral smirk, she  _ shoved. _ Gaster stumbled back one more step, only to find there was no ground for him to walk on. He tumbled over the edge, and some disconnected part of Frisk wondered why there wasn’t a guardrail. Not that she was complaining. 

 

The screaming and cursing stopped abruptly and Frisk sank to her knees. “Heh. L-look… look what you made me do…” She coughed a congealed mass of blood and dust out, and slumped dizzily to the floor. “Good riddance to bad… baad… bad rubbish.” She closed her eyes.

 

“frisk.  _ frisk _ !”

 

Darkness overtook her once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is a slightly-edited version of Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do'.


	12. I knew I wouldn't forget ya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter today, to give everyone a chance to breathe after that massive fight scene.

The next few minutes passed in a blur for Sans. Frisk wasn’t dead, but she was very,  _ very _ close. The same went for Bianca, whom he only recognized from Frisk’s memories. He teleported over to his sister, hands lighting up green as he tried feebly to fix his sister’s arms, which seemed to be completely blackened, as though cooked in a fire for entirely too long. The blackness went all the way up to her shoulders, her entire arms suffering from what he knew had to be third or even fourth degree burns. He’d only seen damage like this after the Doctor, bastard that he was, decided to see what acid would do to his sister’s skin. And even then that was a tiny spot, a mere coin-sized bit of damage, not her entire arms. He pumped as much magic into her as she could until he felt woozy. Her HP had risen a bit, but she was still in bad shape. He hurried over to Bianca and checked her. Finding the woman at only one hp, he desperately pushed more magic into her. As he did, Flowey rose up and did the same, though he, too, was in very bad shape, having been thrown about along with the human. Together they managed to raise her from one hp to seven, and Sans cursed his healing magic, which was as weak as all the rest. 

 

Magic spent, the little skeleton slumped over Bianca’s hip, blacking out in much the same way his sister had.

 

Papyrus ran about in circles, frantically whining and pawing at both of his siblings before shifting forms and shaking both of them. Flowey tried to calm the crying child down, but to no avail-- Papyrus sat between his siblings and bawled loudly. He cried and cried and cried, until the stress was too much for his tiny body and he fell asleep where he sat.

 

This was the scene that Scylla and Gerson entered, a few hours later. Three unconscious children, one unconscious human, and a flower trying desperately to keep his eyes open. 

 

Flowey managed to choke out a small explanation, “They fought Gaster, he fell into the CORE, don’t hurt the human, she’s with Frisk.” And with his job done, he too, collapsed limply on top of Bianca, petals drooping helplessly.

 

Scylla and Gerson exchanged a glance, then set to work.

 

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Frisk woke up, stretching luxuriously in an almost catlike manner. Her eyes remained closed, and she breathed in the scent of antiseptic and took in the soft warmth surrounding her. It was a rare day at the lab that she woke up this comfortable.

 

/You’re not at the lab. You pushed the old bastard into the CORE, remember?/

 

The memories came rushing back and Frisk blinked rapidly, staring at an expanse of white. She sat up and looked around to find she’d been lying facedown on what seemed to be a hospital cot, and she wasn’t the only one. Sans was in the bed next to her, Papyrus curled around him in his child form rather than blaster, and Bianca was lying on her other side. Flowey was asleep in a pot on the bedside table, and Undyne and Alphys were snoozing in a pair of chairs across the room. There was an empty chair in between her bed and Sans and Papyrus’s bed, as though someone had been sitting beside them but had left. 

 

She quickly took stock of herself-- She seemed to be unhurt. Or rather, healed. Because she’d been pretty damn hurt the last time she was awake. She watched her hand as she wiggled her fingers without issue.  _ The upsides of healing magic _ , she thought with a wry chuckle.

 

/You did good, kid. Really good./ Chara said, a proud note in his voice. 

 

She stretched again, rolling her shoulders and opening her wings. ‘Thanks.’

 

There was a gasp from across the room, and Frisk looked over to see Toriel, standing in the doorway of the room (a hospital room?) holding a steaming cup of tea. “My child, you’re awake!” There were streaks of matted-down fur on Toriel’s face and her eyes were red and puffy. Frisk wondered how long she had been crying. 

 

Any residual anger she may have been harboring towards Toriel popped like a balloon. The goat woman rushed over, carefully setting her cup aside and wrapping Frisk into a hug. She had only wanted to keep Frisk safe, and she had been right. Going after Gaster alone had been stupid and impulsive, and had nearly gotten her and her friends and siblings killed. 

 

“I’m sorry, Mama.” Frisk murmured into her soft white fur. Toriel rubbed her back in response, in between her wings, and Frisk melted into the touch.

 

“Never, never do something like that again, my child, please.” The goat woman sobbed.

 

Frisk smiled tiredly and hugged her, careful not to verbally make such a promise. Stupid and impulsive her choice may have been, she would do it again in a heartbeat. “Where are we, Mama?”

 

“The palace infirmary.” Toriel said, pulling away and seating herself back in the empty chair.She took a long sip of her tea, and then offered the cup to Frisk. The girl took it without hesitation, drinking it so fast she almost burnt her tongue. But her mouth had felt dryer than hotland and she now felt better. “Scylla and Gerson found you all out of it. You’re very lucky they did, you and your friend--” She cast a glance at Bianca, “Were most grievously injured.”

 

“... What does ‘grievously’ mean?”

 

Toriel laughed, a bright clear sound, and Frisk’s own lips twitched despite her confusion. “Never change, my child.”


End file.
